The present invention relates generally to cotton harvesters, and more specifically to a moistener pad for the moistener column on a row unit of a cotton picker.
In a conventional cotton picker of the type shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,365, spindles which remove cotton from cotton plants travel in a path past a doffing mechanism which removes the cotton from the spindles. These spindles tend to pick up plant juices and trash. To clean the spindles, a moistener column is provided with a plurality of moistener pads supported above the paths of the spindles. The pads include fins which project downwardly to wipe the spindles as they pass the moistener column. Cleaning fluid is applied to the moistener pad to help remove foreign material from the spindles. The moistener column is adjustable vertically so that as the pad fins wear, the pads can be moved into an optimum cleaning relationship with respect to the spindles. A detailed description of such a moistener column is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 3,004,376 issued to A. L. Hubbard on 17 Oct. 1961. A moistener pad of the type utilized with such a column is described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 935,459 filed 26 Nov. 1986, and of common ownership with the present invention.
Conventional moistener pads, such as shown at FIG. 2 of the drawings herein, often deteriorate and are rendered ineffective before the fins are worn to a point wherein otherwise they could be effectively used for spindle cleaning. Such early deterioration is generally caused by spindles wrapped with trash or cotton passing by the moistener pad. The pads are normally mounted on the moistener column such that the movement of the spindle as it approaches the pad has a substantial component of travel parallel to the length of the fins, and as the spindle with debris engages the generally vertical leading edge of the fins, tearing forces are applied to the fin. As the edge of the fin is pushed by the debris, the fins bend away from their normal parallel, straight relationship. The ends of the fins can tear away from the base of the moistener pad, and the bending of the fin leads to cracking of the fin structure inwardly from the edges. Therefore, the moistener pads have to be replaced before the fins are worn all the way down, particularly when the harvester is operating in marginal crop conditions wherein doffing is not good or wherein trash tends to wrap on the spindles.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved moistener pad for a cotton picker moistener assembly. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a moistener pad which overcomes the above mentioned problems.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a moistener pad for a cotton harvester moistener column which reduces the incidence of tearing and cracking of the moistener pad fins and which eliminates the need to replace the pads before the fins have worn completely down.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an improved cotton picker moistener pad which reduces stresses, wear and cracking in the pad, even when cotton is wrapped around the spindles to be cleaned or when trash is present on the spindles.
In accordance with the above objects, a moistener pad is provided having a base and a plurality of fins extending vertically from the base in parallel spaced relationship with the leading edges of the fins facing generally in the direction of approach of the spindles. To reduce bending and flexing of fins and tearing and cracking forces as the fins are engaged by a spindle wrapped with cotton or trash, the leading edge of the fins is tapered from the base toward the bottom edges of the fins to provide a less abrupt transition between non-contact and contact of the spindle with the fins as the spindle approaches the moistener pad. The tapered leading edges lie generally along a plane which is angled from the vertical at approximately forty-five degrees. In the preferred embodiment, edges of the fins at both sides of the pad are beveled so that the pad may be mounted with either edge facing in the direction of approach of the spindle.